Just the Facts: Obama’s Speech in District 428

Posted by yinn

Sep7

I received two e-mails very early this morning that Dr. Evil Briscoe, Superintendent of Schools for District 428, has ordered all the school principals not to show President Obama’s speech to schoolchildren tomorrow morning.

However, according to recorded school auto-calls placed to district families a bit after 10 a.m., the speech will be shown throughout the district but any children wishing to opt out of watching the speech may do so without penalty. Was a decision reversed in the face of public displeasure, or is this a correction to a rumor run wild? You decide. I have to go check the President’s Labor Day remarks for socialistic propaganda inspiration. [/snark]

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OK, I am confused. The first paragraph says the speech will not be shown but the second paragraph says it will be shown but kids can opt out of watching it. Lots of other schools are allowing children to opt out of watching the speech, well, having their parents yank them out of watching it. I have no problem with that. But, I would have a problem with the speech not shown at all.

Sorry, this is not good for kids from under-represented groups, in a country still hung up on racial issues, in a school district known for having those issues. Let the kids watch the speech.

This experience formed my opinion on the matter: When George Bush the First became president, the day before the inauguration, I was on stage in the band when he, Vice President Dan Quayle, Jack Kemp, Steven Jobs, some Olympic gymnast (Kurt Thomas?), and a bunch of other people gave inspirational speeches to thousands of local D.C. schoolchildren. I thought it was really beneficial for the kids and that took hours out of their school day to get bussed across town and then go through security. It had to be a memorable experience for all those kids, to hear successful people talk about how education and hard work was important to them. To hear Quayle say, “I wish I had been more serious about my education” was priceless.

Comment by yinn on September 7, 2009 at 4:16 pm

I updated a bit to make the timeline clearer. What is still unclear, however, is whether the decision changed or some people got it wrong in the first place.

Personally I would never dream of separating my child from his president. Instead, I will let him know what I agree with and what I disagree with — and why — just as with President Bush, whom he wrote a couple times when he attended elementary school.

This is especially important when people use their bully pulpits inappropriately, a not-unheard-of event. It happened last year when one of his teachers tried to convince the children that the beloved teachers would lose their pensions if the Illinois Constitutional Convention referendum passed. I was absolutely livid about the abuse but the important thing was to help him think critically about motivations and the like, as we have always done with advertising.